#French - #LC2017 - Michelle Chiperi Aivazova
#LC2017#FrenchMichelle Chiperi Aivazova - Coláiste EindeThis morning I woke up not being able to stomach breakfast. French for me was a bluff exam, one I could have seriously just wrote down what I knew. That's what happened, the comprehensions were easy and the opinion pieces were all so easy I left an hour early because I had so much time.
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English - #LC2017 - Alex Fogerty
#LC2017 - #EnglishAlex Fogarty - Ratoath CollegeWell, that went well, thank you State Examinations! I was honestly so happy with this paper. I found it to be very fair and pretty well rounded. I answered Question A from Text 3, I enjoyed the theme of that particular text being childhood memories. The questions were very straight forward and I was grateful for that. I then went onto answer Question B from Text 2. Again a very straight forward question and it was actually just lovely. Asking about the biased media... All I had to was go on about Fake News and Donald Trump, easiest opinion piece, just do what I've been doing since November... Complain about Trump. Lastly, I chose No.3 for Section II of the paper. The Speech on Democracy at the World Youth Conference. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for a nicer question! Loved waffling on about politics as I do best, and was even able to bring a very lovely, truthful anecdote. Loved this paper, I hope it went well for everyone else! #LC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17 
Leaving Certificate French Oral
Ellen O'Rourke - Higher Level French Oral
Word of advice: Eat a good breakfast on the day of the exam. It sounds like such a clichéd, teacher-y thing to say, but trust me, I learned the hard way. I thought I'd get into the spirit of things with a pain au chocolat and a cup of really strong coffee to start the day. Bad idea. I was starving all day and all I wanted to do was stress eat. On top of that, when my palms were sweating and heart was hammering in the run up to the exam, I put it down to nerves - but it was probably just the caffeine! Next time, I'll go for porridge s'il vous plaît.I put lots of pressure on myself in the weeks leading up to the exam - I need at least a B in French for the course I want - until someone said something which made me see it in a whole different way: 'the most important thing to have is confidence'. It's true - 50% of the marks are going for communication and pronunciation, which can't be learned from a book, and can easily go down the drain if you're a bit wobbly on the day. I began to relax a bit then, and trust all the work that I've put in over the last few years. To prepare, I wrote paragraphs on everything from l'uniforme to l'avenir, recorded myself saying them, and listened to it tous le temps. I don't even remember learning it, it just sort of osmosis-ed in and I was able to spiel it all off on the day. There was a number of benefits to this- I knew I had my grammar and phrases on point because they came straight from my notes, but there were also a few pitfalls; whenever she asked a question that I hadn't prepared, it sort of threw me off my flow, and then when I didn't get through all the stuff I had prepared, I became frustrated with myself. Not the best way to learn a language, I know now, but it worked. The other way to do it is completely wing it, which worked insanely well for one of my friends. While her french is not parfait, she made the examiner laugh and had general banter, which will get her a high grade no doubt.I did my document on my trip to France which I found immensely helpful. I had all the vocab on la gastronomie, le paysage, les differences etc and was able to recite word for word what I had prepared for a solid three minutes. This led to some questions on the importance of languages including "est qu'il y a beaucoup de débouchés pour les jeunes?" which really stumped me. I panicked and said "oui c'est trés important", which seemed to get me off the hook (I later was informed by my French friend that déboucher can mean to open up, uncork, or very very rarely, job opportunities...).It's finally over – it’s so strange to think, all those years of studying and travelling and speaking in French – not to mention pages and pages of notes (sorry rain-forest!) – and it all comes down to a ten minute conversation with a stranger.It could have gone better I feel, but then again it could have gone worse. Il faut voir la vie en rose - comme on dit en francais.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union. If you are interested in becoming an ISSU Exam Blogger, contact info@issu.ie with your name, school year and mobile contact details.
(Part 1) Lead up to the Leaving Certificate Results
Deputy President - Joanna Siewierska
My CAO* experience began way back somewhere in Transition Year guidance class when our counsellor, Ms Fagan, opened up qualifax.ie and cao.ie and asked us what would we like to do in college. We all smiled and thought, what is she on about; sure we have two more years to go...Fast forward to September of last year, and as we prepared to go to the Higher Options event, the nerves began to kick in. I came back with a nice stack of prospectuses and different coloured pens and total confusion. There was so much to choose from. I also attended the international colleges fair in UCD* with some friends, which I enjoyed a lot but it made the choice of possible colleges and courses seem endless.For some time, medicine in Italy seemed like the perfect undergraduate experience however I changed my mind about that pretty quickly. Later, a scholarship in UCC* attracted my attention, but in the end I decided to take advantage of the fact that I live in Dublin and have easy access to a broad choice of excellent colleges and universities. Still, the choice of courses was massive!From Science to Drama, English to Computer Science, I was hovering over every course that had anything to do with any of my interests. It was tough. The one thing that I knew was that 6th year was draining me and the only way I could manage it was by staying involved and active outside of school in the hope to distract myself from the inevitable exams.Staying involved was one of the best decisions I made in 6th year, despite many people warning me against it. I got the fantastic opportunity to spend a weekend in Brussels with some friends from Youth Work Ireland in October and in November ISSU sent me and a friend to Bratislava for three days. I loved those experiences because not only did I get to escape and experience new cities, I also got to learn more about European politics and in particular about the Student Union movement around Europe. They were great opportunities to see life beyond exams and school and I found them very motivating to study and to aim high.During 6th year I was also involved in some work with the Junior Minister for Equality. As time went on I realised that social issues, equal rights and working together to make the world a better and fairer place for all was something that I was really passionate about. I suppose, to some extent, I was already slowly working towards those goals on a small scale, and I really wanted to continue doing so. I began thinking that in order to make a real difference in the world you need to be a decision maker, someone who is involved with governments and people who run countries and decide on what is fair and what isn’t. In that way, you can become a part of making changes in laws and policies which, once implemented correctly, can have a direct effect on the lives of many people. Obviously, this is a really simplified image, but basically, it was my belief that to achieve equality and social justice in the world you need a solid knowledge of law and then apply it. So, when I saw the course titled 'Law with Social Justice' in UCD, I fell in love!It wasn't easy choosing UCD. As a younger sister of a devoted TCD* student, UCD was the enemy. But, having visited the Law open day in Trinity, I knew that it wasn't the right place for me. It just didn't feel right and the social justice modules really appealed to me. For a while I considered other options, I had been to Maynooth University before and I was a regular at different events and conferences in DCU*, but I felt I could achieve higher points than those required for many of their courses. In the end, I decided to be ambitious and brave and put down UCD's Law at the top of my CAO. Later on, actually on the day of the CAO deadline, I went on a proper tour of the UCD campus and I was even happier with my choice.After the exams I was exhausted and didn't really care about anything other than getting back to normal. In the time coming up to the exams, and during them, I was certainly not my usual self. I was agitated, moody and tired. Soon after my last exam, I managed to get a part time job and I settled into a routine which helped balance the mood swings and relax the nerves. Now, as the results are getting closer, I do feel some nerves creeping back but nowhere near as much as I did during the exam season. I'm a bit of a workaholic, so between my job, ISSU work and other engagements, there's not much time left in my day to worry, only a few hours to sleep. I'm doing pretty well and feeling good.For now, I have requested time off work on results day and the day after. Regardless of what news I'll find in that envelope, I plan on celebrating surviving the Leaving Cert with friends. I will worry about where I'll be going in September later. I know that the CAO offer is a big deal, but it's not the end of the world. Second round offers, checking papers and getting new grades, vacant places in courses; there are plenty of ways to sneak into that dream course. And if not, then who knows, maybe my second choice (or whatever else comes) will be better!I feel like even though university or college is important now, the education that we get, regardless of where we get it and in what field, will only take us as far as we work for it . No fancy reputation or shining facilities will mean anything if you don't put in the work, and equally if you get into a course in a smaller institution or get an apprenticeship, if you work hard, you can achieve great things.So my advice to all of you waiting for results with me is this, don't worry too much about what you'll be doing next year, worry about how hard you will work to make the best of it! :)Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.CAO* - Central Applications OfficeUCD* - University College DublinUCC* - University College CorkTCD* - Trinity College DublinDCU* - Dublin City UniversityThe ISSU advises students and parents to use the National Parents’ Council post-primary (NPCpp) free phone exam helpline (1800 265 165) to seek independent advice from qualified guidance counsellors. This will be available from 10 am 12th of August, more details will be shared next week.
Junior Cert English
Art - Higher Level
English Paper One: The exam began with the reading comprehension, as always. This year's was on Mary Bück, the Irish astronomer. Personally, I found this to be not overly challenging, though I spent a good forty five minutes answering questions on it. I thought the essay titles were very open ended and relatively easy to work with, though my friend found the speech difficult. I worked with the title Tremendous Silence and wrote about a wake. The Functional question was considered to be tricky by most. Guidelines for workers in a shop was a first for the exam commission to come out with. I did the report instead which I found to be the most challenging part of paper one. Finally, there was media studies. I chose to do the question on the editor and not the report on Rotten Tomatoes. Explaining the job of the editor was pretty main stream. Then we were to give our opinion on the ice bucket challenge which was fun. I went against the writer's alternative. Finally, a page of rambling about politics did the trick on the politics question, I think...English paper two: As always, paper two drains all the energy from junior cert students as you're writing till the end. The questions on the unseen drama weren't overly tricky if I remember correctly. However the studied was more difficult to work with than usual. A sense of place was asked on poetry which shocked many students I'm sure. We then worked with two poems on ocean birds which wasn't overly challenging. The studied novel gave students the option to talk about a character or alternatively pick two words from a list. I used inspiration and gripping for Roll of Thunder. At this stage I was utterly wrecked. The Book Thief was a short extract with two scenes. I found question two and three on this to be tricky. Fortunately we only had to do one of those. The first was pretty workable. Overall, a mediocre paper, which I thought was harder than paper one.
Jane - Higher Level
Paper 1I was delighted with all of paper one. As most English Junior cert paper ones do, it followed a theme form section to the personal writing section, and this year is was astronomy. I found this a very interesting topic which insipred me to choose Stargazing as my personal writing heading. Even though I had planned beforehand to compose a speech, as soon as I saw the word a hundred things jumped out at me so I knew I had to do it!I chose the first option for function writing and I put a twist to it.. I wanted to make it jump out at my examiner for being different.. hopefully they will appreciate it!The media section was pretty nice this year, I chose the film question as reading the first part of the newspaper section nearly put me to sleep! (It was "write about the purpose of a news editor")Paper 2I decided to complete my studied works questions first, as during my pre I didnt get to finish any of my To Kill A Mockingbird question! Anyway I think this is a pretty good idea, all you second years listen up!Usually I opt for the Shakespearean Drama from section one, but today, whatever was in the air, I just couldn't handle reading Shakespeare and went for the other Drama. I have a lot of experience in Drama and so I usually love these questions, today however I found the scene quite mundane. I didnt think there was anything interesting about the passage or the dialouge and I was pretty disappointed about this!Actually, something I've noticed about this year was the use of bullet points in paper one, and having a few adjectives as part of a question and having to chose one and describe it... I found this pretty weird because they had nothing like it in past years.And now, for poetry.. I LOVED the poems! I thought both poems were fantastic and loved answering questions on them! However, even if you didnt like the poems, as a lot of my friends didn't don't be too hard on yourself because the entire question is only worth 30 marks!And now for unseen fiction...I'm not quite sure what was the matter with me today, but I had a feeling that I had a half an hour more than I actually did have (KILLER) and it was 25 past 4 and I still hadn't started the unseen fiction. I literally got no chance to even read the fiction so it was 30 marks completely gone!I was absolutely kicking myself. I have a very good English track record and have a achieved straight A's in the subject since first year, so you can imagine I was very distressed. However, I really did my best, and honestly, thats all I could do. I think if I do get a bad grade for it in September, that I should not take it to heart and not let it interrupt my enjoyment of the subject. At the end of the day, its just a little letter, so honestly, in case anyone else is on my boat... We'll be grand as long as we keep our head high!!
Helen - Higher Level
- English Paper 1 -I felt that English Paper 1 was quite straight forward as it's not a paper which you can study for. The Reading Section was centered around the theme of astronomy which later linked with an optional question later on in the paper, in Personal Writing which was "Stargazing".In Section 2 which was Personal Writing, there was an option of 8 topics. I chose (1) Breaking the mould. I centered this piece in a short story format. It was about a boy who lived in a small conservative town and he's gay. It features the obstacles he must overcome, which includes having to tell his parents about his sexuality. He then begins to campaign for the right to gay marriage in his state. I chose this theme as it is topical and modern with regard to the recent referendum.In Section 3 which was Functional Writing, there was an option between writing a set of customer service guidelines or to write a report based on a survey within your school. I decided to go with the first option which was writing a set of guidelines. Again, I felt this was quite straight forward, as it was mostly common sense with regard to good manners, cleanliness and etiquette.In Section 4 which was Media Studies, I found it was quite relevant as it featured such trends as the "Ice Bucket Challenge" The question for this was centered around the misuse of the social media phenomenon. Question 2 of this section was centered around "Rotten Tomatoes" website, which was all about movie reviews. All in all, Paper 1 went quite well.- Paper Two -The Unseen Drama was a choice between a Shakespearean piece or a more modern piece. I decided to go with the Shakespearean piece as it was the one I was most comfortable with. It was about two lovers who were about to be separated because the male lover was about to revolt against the king. The Other Drama was about a family picnicking on a sunny afternoon in June. Question Two in the Drama section featured your studied piece. I, like a lot of the country had studies Romeo and Juliet. It was interesting to see that within both questions, the staging and how you'd go about staging and performing the play were featured.The Unseen Poetry was a surprise as it featured 2 poems in which you had to answer. The studied poem featured questions such as imagery and setting or to note what the poet had to say about either People and Nature or Adults and Children. I chose imagery and setting and I decided to go with The Daffodils by William Wordsworth.The Unseen Fiction was based on the novel, 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak. This tied in with the World War 2 topic in my history course so this aided my understanding of the questions.The studied piece questions gave a choice between choosing two words to best describe the novel from a list of words. My chosen novel was, 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde. I chose the words, 'Gripping' and 'Complex' to describe this piece. The other option was to describe the most interesting characters in your chosen novel which display both strengths and weaknesses.Furthermore, I was happy with how the English papers went.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Blog: ISSU Oifigeach na Gaelige
Dia duit ann,Tá ISSU ar son na hathruithe atá i ndán don Teastas Shoisearaigh. Tá na leasuithe pléite again go minic le blianta beage anuas. De réir tuairisc ESRI ón mbliain 1997, nil an Teastas Shóisearaigh éifeachtach go leor agus beigh na measúnún leanúnach san JCSA níos fear. Sin é an fáth leis na leasiuthe conspóideach seo agus an fáth go befuilifimid ar aon intinn leis an Rialtas ar an ábhar.Is oth liom a rá, nach bhfuil na múinteoirí sásta leis na leasuithe seo. Níl na lá stailc seo go maith in aon chor, go hAirithe dom agus gach duine eile atá ag ullmhú le haghaidh na triailscrúduithe. Tá go leor brú orm torthai maithe a fháil, gan lá scoile a chaill coicís roimh mo thriailscrúduithe. Tá súil agam nacj leanfaidh na laethanta stailc ar aghaidh, ar mhaithe le me hArdteist agus go bhfillfidh na muinteoirí ar ais go dtí na cainteanna chun réiteach níos sáisiúla a fháil ar an bhfadhb gan lá stailc eile.Is mise le meas,Dáire MurrayOifigeach na Gaelige